A National Survey of Pre-Service Preparation for Collaboration
Source: Teacher Education and Special Education, v. 32 no. 4 (November 2009) p. 379-393.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
The degree to which special educators serve in a meaningful collaborative capacity in inclusive classrooms has come under scrutiny, and hence, the quality of collaboration training afforded requires examination.
The broad purposes of this study were twofold.
First, it was important to examine the perceived value in developing collaboration skills and the manner of training within pre-service programs for special educators.
Second, the degree to which special education faculty feel their colleagues in general education support collaboration may provide insight related to any dissonance pre-service students experience across programs and subsequently in their early years of teaching.
This article describes the results of a survey conducted with 53 undergraduate pre-service special education training programs representing 25 states. The survey examined (a) the manner in which collaboration training for special education majors is structured according to content and field experience requirements, (b) the degree to which general education students at each institution are incorporated, (c) faculty perceptions related to the quality of collaboration in public schools, and (d) perceived differences between special and general education faculty in terms of the importance of collaboration training.
Results suggest that many of the concerns related to collaboration in public schools are paralleled by, and perhaps attributable to, those between special and general education in college and university training programs.